Baskets?

[Csayankee]

Good Day Everyone,

I am have question that someone ask me to help with. She is starting to make modern baskets and doing a great job at them. But she would like to start making period style baskets for herself and others. Does anyone know of any books that she might be able to look at or help her make the baskets. Maybe even give her the type of materials used.

MODS: Please place this thread were you all think it might fit better.

Thanks
Daniel MacInnis

[ElizabethClark]

Re: Baskets?

While I don't have any specific resources to share on basket-making, she might look into workbasket instructions in period texts (Workwoman's Guide and Beadle's come to mind.)

I'd simply caution against producing those "picnic basket/farb hiders"--needing to hide a great amount of modernity is antithetical to the progressive mindset, which seeks to replace the modern with the period-appropriate equivalent... usually ending up with less "stuff" to haul, and less need for baskets to store/cart/hide things.

Anyone have ideas on where to look for period basket-making information? I recall information on what basket weavers/makers wore as being in Occupational Dress by Phillis Cunnington, but I don't think that had specifics on techniques and materials.

[Virginia Mescher]

Re: Baskets?

Good Day Everyone,

I am have question that someone ask me to help with. She is starting to make modern baskets and doing a great job at them. But she would like to start making period style baskets for herself and others. Does anyone know of any books that she might be able to look at or help her make the baskets. Maybe even give her the type of materials used.

MODS: Please place this thread were you all think it might fit better.

Thanks
Daniel MacInnis

I have a book of plates from _Godey's_ and _Peterson's_ (cut out and bound by original owner in the 1860s) that has a number of baskets pictured. Some of the baskets are made from slats or splits, others are made from reeds, willow or thin splits. There was an oval covered basket as well as rounded top oval basket with floppy handles on each side rather than a stiff handle going across the top.

In the book _Liwwat Boke 1807-1882 Pioneer_ edited by Luke B. Knapke there is a section on baskets. The book was a diary of Boke as she emmigrated from Bemen, Germany and settled in Ohio. There are quite a few illustrations drawn by Liwwat with her explanations of the her experiences.

She wrote that basket-work was an art and that they were made from various materials. Although she did not illustrate a completed basket she did write that ther were two types of baskets; woven and spool or spiral. Woven baskets were subdivided into different categories. Large baskets were usually woven in a checkerboard pattern of splints. If one used stalks (sugarcase or corn) they could be woven in a twill pattern. Wickerwork baskets were woven of willow and could be woven in many different patterns and styles. She also mentioned twined work which utilized a warp of stiff, rigid stems or splints and a woof was woven in pairs, in threes, or twined and braided in threes.

Spiral or coiled baskets were made with flexible string or other pliable material. Raffia or palms leaves were used. Curl-work also was used to produce an openwork style of basket weave.

Liwwat ends the basket section with, "Basket-work is a very practical and valuable occupation in a girls' school and in the convent. It is simple and easily learned, and is a worthwhile training for both the hand and eye. It is more than a pastime."

[56spencer]

Re: Baskets?

Greetings,

Regarding trational baskets: is there a particular geographic region of interest? I ask as it might dictate what materials would be appropriate. I don't have them readily at hand, but I do have access to at least a couple of books on historic baskets from various regions. If still interested, let me know and I'll see what I can retrieve in the near future.

Take Care,

[Csayankee]

Re: Baskets?

The Area that she live in is Kentucky. SO anything dealing with that region.

Thanks
Daniel MacInnis

[MissAnnaMae]

Re: Baskets?

One of our gals, Shelly Langley, demos basket weaving with us. She's on vacation this week but I'll get her to pass along her sources and such when she returns.

[56spencer]

Re: Baskets?

Greetings,

Two publications that show some baskets from our time period of interest:

Baskets and Basket Makers in Southern Applalachia by John Rice Irwin, Schiffer Publishing Limited, Exton, PA 1982

Basketry of the Appalachian Mountains by Sue H. Stephenson, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York, NY, 1977

White oak is the predominent material but others are shown and discussed in both books. The author of the first one, John Rice Irwin, is the founder and director of the Museum of Appalachia in Norris, TN. I visited there in the 1980s and found it to be a true treasure of regional material culture. Don't miss it if you are anywhere near the neighborhood.

[Dale Beasley]

Re: Baskets?

Daniel,
Please contact me on this ........I have some information that you may find interesting......predates the 1860s.....
glenn.beasley@us.army.mil

[Spinster]

Re: Baskets?

We have several white oak baskets in the some of the traditional Appalachian styles illustrated by Irwin, and use them in carting gear at events.

Quite by accident, we discovered how easy they were to dye.

I had made up about 20 gallons of a "wartime shortage" dye, based on Vicki Betts newspaper research--soaked and strained hulls from black walnuts, with a mordent made of iron dissolved in water and vinegar. While we got a throughly unremarkable :sarcastic (meaning ugly) dirty brown color on wool and a nasty light grey on cotton, the accident of dropping a white oak basket into the pot resulted in an immediate black--glossy and permanent with one splash into the warm dyepot.

Subsequent experiments found that we could dye large baskets simply by ladleing the warm dyebath over the white oak.

Of course, these are not the lovely and refined baskets that would be considered by fashionable magazines or made at a girls school, but rather the coarse and sturdy baskets of a farm.

[Csayankee]

Re: Baskets?

I would like to thank everyone for their help. Lucky for me and the lady wishing ot make the baskets, we work in an University Archives and happen to find the two books mentioned in the Main Collection. So we went and took a copy of each for our purpose. When speaking of dying the material she has been testing few colors and so far everything is looking good. Her next goal is to find some low prices on White Oak.

Thanks
Daniel MacInnis